Jeffrey Ellis News

So it was with some trepidation - and more than a little wariness - that I approached a new production of A Few Good Men, now onstage through October 15, at Lakewood Theatre Company in Old Hickory. While the physical realities of Lakewood's venue preclude any such staging innovations as employed by Whatley, what you are treated to instead is a sharply focused and superbly acted production of Sorkin's seminal dramatic work. As one of the area's most successful community theater companies, Lakewood has consistently performed to capacity crowds, drawing actors from throughout the region.

Irvin and Crabtree, producing artistic director at CCP, lead a production company of 50 in the revivial, including Jason Ross, Weslie Webster, Daniel Black, Brenda Frye, Lauren Marshall, and Greg and Lindy Pendzick. Scenery is by Robert Cothran, head of design for a generation at Knoxville's Clarence Brown Company and UT Theaters. Crabtree and John Fionte co-direct, with music direction by Ron Murphy, Leila Nelson as choreographer, and Austin Price and Chaz Sanders as lead dancers.

Out Front on Main presents Tracy Letts' Bug, directed for the stage by George W. Manus, Jr., focuses on 'on an unhinged war veteran who holes up with a lonely woman in a spooky Oklahoma motel room, while the line between reality and delusion is blurred as they discover a bug infestation.' It runs October 13-31, Thursdays-Sundays at 7:30 p.m. with an additional show on Halloween night followed by a costume ball.

You gotta give credit to Scott Rice: the man's got style! Approaching his 40th birthday with the same trepidations that anyone would, instead of just throwing a drunken revelry for all his Nashville friends, he has chosen instead to become an impresario in order to produce, direct and star in the Music City premiere of John Bucchino's It's Only Life.

Superbly performed by a cast of eight exceptional student actors in the Belmont University Department of Theatre and Dance, under the direction of Bill Feehely (co-founder of Nashville's acclaimed Actors Bridge Ensemble), Dancing at Lughnasa opens the 2011-2012 season with theater of the highest order, delivering a sumptuously appointed physical production that soars because of the wonderfully nuanced portrayals of the actors.

Nashville actor Scott Rice's new production company, Falling Frog Creations, presents John Bucchino's It's Only Life in celebration of Rice's birthday, at Street Theatre Company, 1933 Elm Hill Pike, October 7-9. While this cabaret retrospective of the music of composer John Bucchino is the inaugural production of this new production company, it also coincides with the birthday celebration of its founder, Rice. Joining Rice onstage will be Megan Chambers, Tyson Laemmel and Olivia Skurka. Rollie Mains serves as musical director and accompanist.

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, starring Ashley Camps, Tricia Matthews, Nick Koesters and Nathan Whitmer, will be produced later this fall at Virginia's Barter Theatre. The State Theatre of Virginia will produce the classic American play tonight through November 12 at Barter Stage II. The Glass Menagerie was chosen after Barter Theatre learned the script for Swamp Gas and Shallow Feelings (originally slated to open October 7) would not be completed in time for rehearsals.

After that huge success, BroadwayWorld.com announces two awards presentations for Tennessee theater this year, with awards to be presented for Nashville productions and for Tennessee productions outside Music City USA. You may make nominations throughout the month of October, with voting for the awards starting in November, and the announcement of winners set for Sunday, January 8, during Midwinter's First Night at The Keeton Theatre in Donelson. Details about that event will be announced in the coming weeks.

Arthur Miller's All My Sons, which debuted on Broadway in 1947, continues to resonate with contemporary audiences thanks to its timeless, heart-wrenching relevance and Miller's unequaled ability as a storyteller. Now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre in an impressive production that opens Tennessee Repertory Theatre's 2011-2012 season, All My Sons is Miller's searing consideration of the relentless pursuit of the American Dream, selflessness be damned in the name of profit.

NowPlayingNashville.com, an initiative of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, recently has unveiled smARTS -a ticket package collaboration with Actors Bridge Ensemble, Dance Theatre of Tennessee, GroundWorks Theatre, Street Theatre Company, and Tennessee Women's Theater Project. This unique discount ticket package allows patrons to sample five performances from five organizations' 2011-2012 seasons for $60, a savings of more than $25.

When Circle Players presents the Leslie Bricusse-Anthony Newly musical Willy Wonka, running October 14-30 at the Keeton Theatre in Donelson, the audience will be exposed to plenty of sugary treats. After all, the stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic story is mostly set in a magical chocolate factory where its owner, Willy Wonka, is checking out possible heirs to his candy empire. He puts his young candidates through a series of character tests which only one boy, Charlie Bucket, passes.

On Golden Pond, Ernest Thompson's acclaimed play about marriage, personal growth and the resolution of family issues, starring Dave Thoreson and Marianne Clark as Norman and Ethel Thayer, takes the stage of the Gaslight Theatre at Dickson's Renaissance Center, running October 7-16.

With the musical hit Beehive: The '60s Musical Sensation bringing down the house through October 15, the Roxy Regional Theatre in Clarksville has launched its 29th season, replete with classics, musicals and regional premieres.

For the past 50 years, To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee's iconic American novel about life in a sleepy Alabama town - has been a favorite of audiences the world over, whether through the book, the Academy Award-winning film version of Christopher Sergel's acclaimed stage production. The Arts Center of Cannon County presents To Kill a Mockingbird in Woodbury October 7-22.

Tony Award Winner for Best Musical in 2010, the national touring company of Memphis makes its way to Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center for a limited November 15-20 run at Andrew Jackson Hall, fresh off its kick-off in the city that gave the show its name. Memphis' national tour was launched at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis.

Poetic and profane, David Mamet's 1975 play American Buffalo is brought to the stage of Nashville's Darkkhorse Theatre in a stunningly raw and beautifully realized production directed by Ryan Williams for ACT 1. As one of the city's most enduring community theatre groups, ACT 1 consistently has proven its worth and claimed its place among the most notable theater companies - whether professional or community-centered - and with American Buffalo the company kicks off its 2011-2012 season with awe-inspiring force, presenting a production that is clearly one of the best to be seen in Nashville during this calendar year.

With spirited campiness in abundance - and the sumptuous physical trappings provided by designers Anthony Popolo and Billy Ditty - The Rocky Horror Show takes over the Boiler Room Theatre for the month of October, giving audiences a rose-tinted view of a fantastical world full of transsexuals, transvestites and other-worldly aliens. In short, it's just another night over at the Frankenstein place.

In so many ways, Trying - Joanna McClellan Glass' richly drawn portrait of the relationship between a patrician American jurist and his Canadian prairie-born secretary - is full of surprising moments, the various and disparate elements of fine drama woven together beautifully to tell a genuinely moving story. Who could have ever guessed that a two-person play, steeped in history though it may be, could prove so compellingly and resolutely fascinating?

Dreamgirls, now onstage at Cumberland County Playhouse, is musical theater at its best, telling a universal story of a group of tremendously talented girls who grow into internationally known musical superstars, brought vividly to life onstage, filled with enough fiery theatrics and backstage drama to completely engage audiences and to deliver an emotional experience that is second to none.

Audiences in Nashville and Middle Tennessee will have a wealth of new offerings awaiting them at the theater this weekend, as companies throughout the region roll out the red carpet for the opening of no fewer than ten new productions. Ranging from the tried and true (Arthur Miller's All My Sons from Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Belmont University Theatre's Dancing at Lughnasa, Lakewood Village Theatre's A Few Good Men and Annie at Towne Centre Theatre) to edgier fare (like The Rocky Horror Show at Boiler Room Theatre and David Mamet's American Buffalo at ACT 1) and newer, less familiar works (Trying from Tennessee Women's Theater Project and the debuting Sideshow Fringe Festival, a new endeavor from Actors Bridge Ensemble that features all manner of new offerings, including a 48-hour playwriting competition from which I'll be tweeting live reviews while the shows happen on Saturday from 6 to 7 p.m.), audiences have a full slate of offerings from which to choose this weekend.